1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a closed cycle in-line double-acting hot gas engine, and more specifically to the construction of a closed cycle in-line double-acting hot gas engine in which an ordinary crankshaft can be used without special jigs and tools, vibration is reduced by evening the outputs generated from the respective cylinders, and a higher performance can be obtained in spite of a relatively simple construction.
2. Description of the Prior Art
This type of engine is a closed cycle hot gas engine in which a gas such as H.sub.2, He, N.sub.2 or the like is hermetically sealed under a high pressure and power is generated by heating and cooling the gas repeatedly from the outside of the engine, that is, by utilizing the force generated by the expansion and compression of the gas.
When this hot gas engine is embodied as a double-acting engine, four cylinders are considered to be proper from the standpoint of its power, efficiency and structure.
The feature of this hot gas engine is that the expansion spaces provided over the pistons are connected to the compression spaces under the next pistons through the respective heaters, and the respective regenerator/coolers.
In the closed cycle double-acting hot gas engine thus constructed, since it is desirable to arrange the cylinders and hot exchangers so as to form the respective uniform working spaces, the cylinders are generally arranged in a circle.
In such a double-acting hot gas engine, however, a special structure is required to convert reciprocating force to rotational force, since an ordinary crankshaft used in an ordinary engine cannot be used.
For instance, a swash plate is used in engines designed by N. V. Philips' Gloeilampenfabriken, and a single crankshaft V-type engine or a double crankshaft U-type engine is used by KB United Stirling (Sweden) AB & CO.
These structures are skilfully designed for the multiple-cylinder hot gas engine; however, since the structures are very complicated compared to the ordinary crankshaft system for an in-line engine, special tools or jigs and skilful assembly are required when these engines are mass-produced for an automotive vehicle, and therefore there has been a problem that these hot gas engines are costly.
A more detailed description of the prior-art closed cycle in-line double-acting hot gas engine will be made hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings under DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS.